Cockadoodledoo

I butchered my own chicken the other day. I didn't take pictures - I know you're disappointed. I normally buy Rosie organic chickens and have my butcher cut them up for me, because Not Michael Landon hates carving chickens and I'm not much good at it myself. But I have a strange aversion to asking people anything or for anything (I made it through my Bachelor's degree without attending a single office hour), and we've been buying lots of chicken lately, so this particular chicken I just couldn't bring myself to have them cut up.

Joy had fairly easy-to-follow instructions, starting with the wings, then the legs and thighs, and finally the back and breasts. It wasn't super pretty, but it wasn't hacked to heck either. I handled it mostly with a cheese knife and really only needed kitchen shears to cut through the ribs. The joints popped out quite easily.

When I was a kid, my mom would roast a whole young chicken all. the. time. She would coat the top of the breast in butter and garlic salt and it would come out all crispy and scrumptious. We would race each other to the oven when it was done to get to the crispy skin first. Not Michael Landon's family would barbeque chicken three or four nights a week in the summer. Chicken done the same way over and over can get boring, crispy skin and barbeque sauce notwithstanding. I grill it on our George Forman grill most the time. I can throw on thighs and legs for dinner that night, and throw on the breasts to keep as leftovers while we're eating.

Here are some things we like to do with leftover chicken, stay tuned for recipes:

• Chicken tacos with homemade salsa
• Chicken tortilla casserole (the sole casserole in my repetoire, a family favorite)
• "Kitchen sink" salad (as in, everything but the)
• Pasta with balsamic vinegrette and chicken